Harvard's "class" portraits : composite pictures and a New England "artistogenic" agenda -- A "dandy" masculinity? Establishing and respecting cisgender norms, using photography -- Social poise and demure confidence : swaying the college women to be the essential players in positive eugenics -- Biometrics and posture pictures : "we did what we were told."
Summary
This is the first study to explore the connections between late-19th-century university/college composite class portraits and the field of eugenics - which first took hold in the United States at Harvard University. Eugenics, "Aristogenics," Photography takes a closer look at how composite portraiture documented an idealized reality of the New England social-caste experience and explains how, when positioned in relation to the individual stories and portraits of members of the class, the portraits reveal points of non-conformity and rebellion with their own rhetoric
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes
Kris Belden-Adams is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Mississippi, USA